On July 26, 1926, the Durham Bulls’ El Toro Park was dedicated. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the first Commissioner of Baseball, stole the show that day by riding onto the field on the team mascot, a real bull.
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On July 26, 1962, Thomas Purcell Jr. demonstrated FlightSail at Lake Waccamaw.
On July 26, 1863, a skirmish took place between local Confederate forces and a Union expedition led by Major General John G. Foster at Potecasi Creek in Hertford County.
On July 25, 1960, Greensboro lunch counters opened to sitting customers of all races for the first time. The event was the culmination of a brief and intense desegregation campaign by black activists that sparked similar actions throughout the country.
On July 25, 1729, North Carolina became a royal colony when the Lords Proprietors sold the colony to King George II.
On July 25, 1780, Major General Horatio Gates assumed direct command of the American forces in the Southern Military Department at their campsite on the Deep River in Randolph County.
On July 24, 1894, Kenneth Royall, the last United States Secretary of War and the first Secretary of the Army, was born in Goldsboro.
On July 24, 1874, poet John Charles McNeill was born in Wagram. In October 1905, McNeill won first place in the competition for the inaugural Patterson Cup, the first literary contest held in North Carolina, earning him the unofficial title of North Carolina's Poet Laureate. McNeill died at age 33.
On July 24, 1924, Leo Haid, abbot and founder of Belmont Abbey, died.
On July 23, 1868, western North Carolina’s first Universalist congregation was organized in Haywood County after traveling preacher Benjamin F. Strain converted a handful of citizens.